Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday February 9, 2000
truculent \TRUCK-yuh-luhnt\
, adjective:
1. Fierce; savage; ferocious; barbarous.
2. Cruel; destructive; ruthless.
I ask whether impeachment will become still another arrow in the quiver of the warrior class of ever more truculent partisan politicians in Washington.
-- "Former Watergate Prosecutors See Censure as Alternative in Clinton's Case", New York Times, December 9, 1998
Bitter and truculent when excited, I spoke as I felt, without reserve or softening.
-- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Those bamboozled into believing palpable untruths that are recognized as such by the larger community are likely in time to develop an attitude of truculent resentment and outright paranoia rather than self-esteem.
-- Thomas M. Disch, The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World
Truculent derives from Latin truculentus, from trux, truc-, rough, savage, fierce.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for truculent
